DURBAN, 8 June 2011 (IRIN) - In 1998, HIV/AIDS activist Gugu Dlamini was beaten to death near KwaMashu township outside Durban after publicly disclosing her HIV-positive status. Her death, an example of the depth of HIV stigma, shook South Africa. Dlamini’s death almost destroyed her daughter, Mandisa, who was just 13 years old when her mother died. Now 25, Mandisa spoke about her experience as part of this year’s Nkosi Johnson memorial lecture, named for South Africa’s youngest HIV activist who died in 2001, at the SA AIDS 2011 Conference. “Most of you know Gugu Dlamini as a hero, who came out about her HIV status. You don’t know the real Gugu Dlamini, you don’t know her life as a young woman, as a single young parent who was unemployed and the challenges she went through to support her child and support herself, the mistakes and the pain she went through that drove her to be HIV-infected.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 23:06:16 +0000
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